The present invention relates to a skate, more specially to a skate comprising a boot provided at its bottom side with a support for mounting at least one means for a movement on a base surface. The skate according to the invention is an ice skate or a roller inline skate.
In a known embodiment, an ice skate comprises a boot composed of a leg portion hingedly connected at the location of the ankle to a foot portion having a downwards directed extension in the form of a substantially U-shaped support for mounting the runner blade. The foot portion is usually connected to the U-shaped support at the heel and toe locations. The runner blade is of perfect curvilinear radius configuration with the concave side facing upwards, and the point of blade-ice contact is positioned forwards corresponding with the vertical axis passing through the skater's center of gravity.
Inasmuch as the optimization of the skating performance requires the skater to apply the necessary thrust within the range between the vertical axis passing through his ankle and the vertical axis passing through the center of blade, it is evident that known skates of this type will never lend themselves to any such optimization, since the U-shaped configuration of the support results in that the thrust is exercized at the toe and heel locations, i.e. outwards of the desired location.